Lily tried very hard not to think about James, and it had been hard.

How were you supposed to forget something like that?

Marissa had left her alone since the incident. Lily had no desire to talk to her. She'd been on it too, helping James, but now Lily realized why. It had all made sense. Marissa had come over because she saw a famous soccer player, not because 'he looked good'. It wasn't a big deal to have a crush on a celebrity. That's why the selfie. That's why the squealing. That's why the everything.

Things had been going like that for a while.

However, everything changed on Saturday.

Marissa bounded into her apartment early morning and wrapped her friend into a big hug.

"Lily," she started. "I'm so, so, so, so, sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that with you. I'm really sorry. I've been beating myself up over it, and I…"

Lily sighed. She knew why Marissa was really here, but it didn't matter. Lily couldn't act like a five-year-old forever.

"It's okay," Lily told her, not sure if she meant it. She couldn't exactly care or know. She still felt humiliated.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Marissa beamed. "Yay! Now, when's your date?"

Lily shrugged. She couldn't really care, if she was being honest. She just didn't like Charlie. And she'd been feeling kind of... hollow and hurt that James had played with her. She'd thought that they had something there, a true friendship. Someone she could confide in.

But apparently not.

No one was genuinely friends with her for anything. Marissa was only here because of her date with Charlie, and James had only been her 'friend' for entertainment.

"Oh come on," whined Marissa. "I really am sorry."

"I'm sure you are."

"So when's the date?" she piped up, clearly not getting the sarcasm.

"Eleven," she replied. "We're going for coffee."

"No lunch or anything?" Marissa asked. "Just coffee?"

"Just coffee."

Marissa squealed something that sounded like "How romantic!" and bounded into her closet, rummaging through her outfits. Lily rolled her eyes as she followed Marissa, who was holding up a fancy purple dress.

"This one?"

"Absolutely not," she told her. "Do I have to wear a dress? Can't I wear…"

"What, a t-shirt and jeans?"

"Yeah."

She shook her head. "Definitely not! You can wear a nice looking shirt or something, but no dresses."

"This is my date, not yours. Let me pick what I'm going to wear."

"It's gonna fail if you do that!"

Lily shot her a look. "Can you shut up?"

"Okay, okay."

Lily picked out a white cold shoulder sweater with flowery blue designs. "Yes or no?"

"Well… put it on first."

Lily rolled her eyes and put it on. "Good?"

Marissa squinted at her, then nodded. "Yeah. I like it. You wanna wear, um, black tights or faded blue jeans with it?"

Lily frowned. "Jeans."

"Of course," grumbled Marissa, pulling out a pair of folded jeans and handing them to Lily. "Now put them on, then we'll do something with your hair."

Lily shut the closet door on her and pulled on her new 'outfit' before going out.

"You look like a supermodel!"

"Thanks, thanks," mumbled Lily. "Now my hair." Then she paused. "Wait a minute."

"Yes?"

"Charlie knew," she muttered. "He's James's friend. He had to have known that I was being fooled." She blinked, remembering the look that he and James had exchanged the first time he'd come into their apartment. "Holy cow, he knew."

"Are you angry with him too?" Marissa asked.

"I mean… I have to talk to him about it. He knew the entire time, so I mean... yes."

"Well, you'll have to forgive him like you forgave me," Marissa replied with a shrug. "He'll most likely apologize, so like... yeah. Now. Onto your hair."

"I'm just going to pull it into a ponytail."

"Sure. Make it look nice, though."

Lily rolled her eyes again and pulled her hair into a swift ponytail behind her back, inspecting herself in the mirror. She looked all right, but not beautiful. Not a knockout, or a gorgeous, beautiful, person. But she didn't care. She didn't want to be beautiful.

She was a normal person.

Unlike that cursed celebrity James Potter.

Don't think about him, she told herself. Don't think about that man.

They still had half an hour to go before she had to leave, so she and Marissa spent the time chatting and touching up her appearance. Finally, the time came, and Lily got up.

"Is he picking you up?" Marissa wondered.

"Yep. He hired an Uber for us, actually."

"Sweet."

Lily shrugged. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

"No, no! Take your time! I'll be right here!"

Lily glared at her. "In my apartment?"

"Any problem?"

"You are such a… Fine, fine. Just make sure Buddy's okay. Okay?"

"Sure thing."

Lily walked over and stroked Buddy's fur softly before she went downstairs and got into the Uber that Charlie had called.

"Hi," he greeted, smiling. "How are you?"

"Good," she responded, and then she couldn't help it. She just had to ask, even though it clearly sounded awkward and sudden. "Why didn't you tell me that James was a celebrity?" she demanded.

Charlie blinked. "Oh. You know."

She scoffed and leaned back. "Did you expect me not to find out at some point? How many brain cells did you think I had?"

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just… I don't know, Lily, I wanted to tell you. I really did. I was telling James that it was wrong not to tell you. I just… It was his idea, Lily. I know it was a bad move. I'm really sorry."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying it's James's fault."

"I know I should have told you, so it's partially mine, but yes, in essence."

Now she hated James even more. Charlie had told him that it was wrong, but he'd went along with it. Ugh. She smiled at him. "It's okay. Um, let's go."

He nodded. "So, I have a coffee place in mind. Are you okay with that?"

"Mhm."

He told the Uber driver the location, and they started driving. The car rolled across the road and Lily looked over at Charlie, who was slightly red. Lily turned away and looked out the window, at all the other cars driving by.

"Okay," started Charlie. "Let's not make this awkward."

"You think?" muttered Lily under her breath. Then she cleared her throat. "Yeah, let's not."

"Any fun plans for the weekend?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Not really. I might go meet some friends or something, but other than that, nope. And you?"

"Oh, I got plans. My friend's coming over from Boston tomorrow, and we're planning to hang out a little bit. We normally go canoeing and stuff, 'cause he normally comes around the summer. But then he got caught up with some work, I think fall gets it most busy… I don't know. We love canoeing. In our college, you know, they hosted these big canoe races. And I always would come, like, gold or silver. Occasionally bronze. Canoeing, rowing, kayaking… really any kind of boating." He looked at Lily. "Do you do boating?"

"I never have, actually."

"Really? I do it all the time."

"Figures," she laughed.

They reached the coffee shop and got out. They chose a table by the corner and both sat down.

"Well, actually, when I was really little, I think I went paddle-boating with my family. My sister fell in, actually, she fell in the river."

Charlie snorted. "You have a sister?"

"Yes, her name's Petunia."

"Nice. I've always wanted a sibling, but nope. I'm stuck with a whole lot of toys. My parents are awesome. They just got me a lot of toys. Once, they got me this huge stuffed pig. Huge." He held out his hands. "Like, that huge. And I loved it. I was like 'It's cute!' and my parents were like, 'You think so?' and so they would go and buy me more toys like that, and I would walk around with them… inseparable… and just march around with my toys. I think people found it weird." He started to laugh.

Lily blinked. He was a nice guy, truly, he just wasn't her type. He talked a lot, and if she was being honest, the story he'd just told wasn't funny. She didn't think this relationship was going to go any farther than one date.

The waiter with their coffees arrived, and they both took their coffees and started drinking from them. Charlie was watching Lily intently and slightly leaned forward, as if he expected her to kiss him or something. She bit her lip, wondering what to do.

When in doubt, sip the coffee.

"Um," he mumbled, leaning back into his seat and gulping down his coffee. "Do you go to Starbucks often?"

"Of course I have. I practically live on coffee."

"Oh? I'm not a big fan of coffee."

"Are you serious?"

"I mean… yeah. Once, when I was little, I had Starbucks coffee. I took it from my dad, we ordered it at the airport 'cause we were coming back from visiting our grandparents. And I had it."

"Fun," she murmured, sipping her coffee some more.

He laughed. "It was really bitter, which is why I don't like it so much."

"You get used to the taste after a while," she told him. Just then, a couple entered the shop and took the table next to them and they started kissing each other all over their faces. The couple on the other side of them kept whispering in each others' ears and giggling.

Lily blinked, turning away. Charlie had turned red, awkwardly looking at Lily. Then she frowned. Were they expected to do that or something? Was there a standard? She didn't really want to do something like that though…

"So…" started Charlie awkwardly. "Have you ever been in a, um, relationship before?"

"Like a serious one?" she asked.

"I mean, any relationship…"

"I had around three in my college," she admitted. "None of them were really serious. But none after I've graduated. My work keeps me busy."

"You work as a…"

"Fashion designer," she replied.

"Oh! Right."

"What about you?"

"It sounds kind of lame, but it's not. I work at TruGreen."

She frowned, trying to recall. "That's the… mosquito spray company, right? The bug spray?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," she replied. "Well, that's nice. People can't survive without bug spray, anyway. I use it all the time."

He grinned. "You should start using TruGreen."

"Will do. And, um, if you don't mind me asking, how are you friends with James?"

"You mean, how's a lame mosquito spray dude friends with the world's best soccer player?"

She cringed at the last four words (she still hadn't gotten over it). "When you put it that way…"

He laughed. "No, um, I think he came over to a store to get some spray on one of his tours in Australia."

"Tour?"

"A soccer tour. You know, those games when a team goes to another country to play that home team in their territory? And they go around and switch between the stadiums?"

She had no clue what he was talking about. "Oh, that. Yeah. Okay, keep going."

"Right, so he was at a store. And I was there too. And we just… I mean, you see a celeb walk into your office, you're like, 'Okay, I gotta do something, he's gotta notice me. This is insane' kinda thing, right, so I kinda just went up to him and was like… 'OMG I'm your fan, what can I do for you' kinda thing, okay, and I don't know, I met him again at the stadium, and I was like… okay, I've met this celebrity twice now, it's gotta mean something. So we just kinda clicked. He's a nice guy, which is why he befriended, um… me."

"Interesting," she mused. Soon, they both finished their coffees and stood up, the date officially over. This was the awkward moment in which Lily had no clue what to do. Shake hands? Hug him? Kiss him?

He leaned forward, obviously trying to kiss her, but she settled with pecking him on the cheek and leaning back. "Um, okay," she said. "This was really nice." She didn't know how to not hurt his feelings, but not give off the sense that there would be a second date. "See you 'round, Charlie."

"Yeah," he agreed. "It was nice. I'll see you." Then he paused. "Should I drop you?"

"Oh, no, it's no big deal. I'll take an Uber myself or get Marissa to pick me up," she responded.

He grinned at her and left. She took a deep breath, composing herself, when she got a text from her boss, Laura.

Hey, Lily.

Lily frowned. It was a Saturday. What was her boss texting her for?

Hi. Is something the matter?

Her boss responded in seconds. I need you at the office ASAP. Drop everything you're doing and come over when you can. It's about the marketing issue.

Can't take no for an answer.

See you at the office.

Lily rolled her eyes. Annoying work. She hailed an Uber and reached her office before going into her boss's office. A lot of the other employees were seated there, including Marissa. She mouthed, 'How was it?'. Lily rolled her eyes again and turned back to Laura.

"You called me?"

"Yes, I did. Actually, we need some marketing ideas. I needed our promotion circle here to discuss finance. Now."

"Got it."

"The fundraiser was shut down by management-"

"Why?" interrupted one of the employees.

"If you would let me finish," Laura snapped. "It was shut down because it didn't match with some of the criteria. We'll have to set up something else."

"We need a market rush," suggested Lily. "Something that attracts lots of customers at once. And especially to our website."

"Yes," agreed their web manager. "Our website views have been decreasing. We need some rush views, otherwise we'll be spending more money on our domain then we rake in. And it'll be useless."

"And that's just losing money," barked Laura. "Any ideas, anybody?"

"Uh, Lily?" asked a person tentatively. Lily looked over at that dude.

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you friends with James Potter? I've seen a picture of you two eating ice cream. It was on a news article the other day."

News article?

What the heck? Why was Lily on the news for eating ice cream with James? Could they not leave people alone? James had signed up for it when becoming a player, sure, but was there a need to drag everyone else into the media that associated with him?

"No way," whispered someone else.

"James Potter!" exclaimed someone.

"You have to be kidding me."

"His style is just so…"

"Is this a joke?"

"Hey, shut up!" Marissa interrupted them. "Leave her alone."

Lily sighed and glared at the person who'd brought him up. She couldn't bear to think of him. "Your point?"

"I mean, he's a really famous celeb. Can't you get him to advertise or tell people or something? A quick post on his Instagram and we'll, like, be super famous."

Marissa's eyes gleamed. "I like that! Lily…" She cut off at the murderous look Lily was giving her.

"Absolutely not," Lily snapped. Then she turned to the other person. "I was on a news article?"

"Well, it was mainly about James going out for ice cream with another woman. Nobody knows who you are. Their shot wasn't super clear, but like… I knew it was you."

"How dare they-"

"I don't care," barked Laura. "I'll think about this idea and decide tomorrow. Until then, you're all dismissed! Oh, I have a headache now."

Lily got up immediately, and she could sense Marissa's eyes on her as the two of them walked out together.

"Lily-"

"Not now."

"Okay. Did you bring your car?"

"Nope."

"All right, I'll drop you." They got into her car and Marissa started driving them home, neither of them saying anything the whole ride home. Lily leaned her head against the window, feeling slightly nauseous.

They reached Lily's apartment after ten silent minutes. They got out of the car and Marissa followed her until the lobby of the building.

"Why are you following me?" Lily asked resignedly.

"You tell me. Why did you say no to getting James on board?"

Lily scowled at her. "Did you suffer from retrograde amnesia?"

"I don't know what that is. But no, I didn't forget what happened. You have to let it go… And this is good for the business! Our work! Don't let your little spat with him… okay, fine, it's not little… but still. Don't let it get in the way!"

"That's not the only reason why," lied Lily. "I mean, yes, the whole…" Her face flushed and her cheeks heated up. "The whole celebrity incident, but not just that. I hate him. He's a horrible person. He played with me, he used me, and he just befriended me for entertainment. I don't think he knows how to be nice to people at this rate. Everything he's done to me, said to me, it was fake. He seemed different at first. Just... a different person. A respectable, true gentleman, but also slightly cheeky. But then he proved it to me, he proved that he's like the rest. He's like the other men. He's like everyone else who's dated me. I hate him. He's an arrogant jerk and deserves to go suffer in a hole."

Marissa's face had turned chalky white by the end of her speech. But she wasn't staring at Lily, she was staring at something behind her.

"What?" demanded Lily, slowly turning around and following her gaze. She dropped dead when she saw who it was.

James Potter.

eyyy, y'all, my cliffhangers are starting to get really good!